Willy Wonka and the Golden Passport: Buying Immigration in a Global Market
Peter Ostrum as Charlie Bucket in a scene from "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory."
Wolper/Warner Bros/Kobal/Shutterstock
For decades, the world’s wealthy have treated citizenship like an asset class, quietly valuing it as such. Want to shave months off your visa wait times, avoid aggressive tax regimes, or keep a “Plan B” escape hatch in your back pocket? There’s a market for that. From Caribbean islands to European Union member states, governments have openly sold “golden visas” and even outright citizenship to anyone willing to write a big enough check.
Now, the United States, the “land of opportunity,” is finally joining the party. The launch of the so-called U.S. Golden Card brings America into a game long dominated by Malta, Cyprus, St. Kitts, and Portugal. Call it immigration’s version of Willy Wonka’s golden ticket, except instead of a lifetime supply of chocolate, the prize is a U.S. green card with a potential pathway to citizenship.
The Global Golden Visa Trade
According to consultancy Henley & Partners, more than 80 countries currently offer some form of “citizenship by investment” (CBI) or “residency by investment” (RBI) program. The industry is estimated at $25–30 billion annually and growing.
*Can also include income requirement. Austria: Living in own residential real estate, A1 German required. Hungary: Program in limbo.
Source: Henley & Partners
Caribbean Programs
- St. Kitts & Nevis: First CBI program (1984). Current minimum: $250,000 donation to a “Sustainable Island State Contribution.” Citizenship in as little as 4–6 months.
- Antigua & Barbuda: $100,000 contribution plus fees for a family of four. Visa-free travel to 150+ countries.
- Dominica: $100,000 donation or $200,000 in real estate. Citizenship in 3–4 months.
Europe
- Portugal Golden Visa: Once required a €500,000 real estate investment (now curtailed; investment funds and job creation routes remain). Over 12,000 investors have applied since 2012, many from China and Brazil.
- Greece: €250,000 minimum for property purchase. In 2023 alone, more than 10,000 applications were filed.
- Malta: Citizenship through €750,000 contribution plus €700,000 property purchase or long lease. Full EU rights.
- Cyprus: Until 2020, investors could purchase EU citizenship for €2 million. Nearly 7,000 passports were sold before the program was shut down under corruption scrutiny.
Other Markets
- United Arab Emirates: Offers long-term “Golden Visas” for property or business investors, with eligibility starting at approximately 2 million United Arab Emirates dirhams (roughly $545,000 U.S. dollars).
- Australia: Provides the Significant Investor Visa, requiring a minimum investment of 5 million Australian dollars (roughly $3.3 million U.S. dollars).
America: Last to the Party
The U.S. long resisted putting a price tag on its green card. The closest was the Employment-Based Immigrant Investor Program, launched in 1990 by the U.S. government. Today's version of the program, EB-5, allows foreign investors to obtain a green card for themselves and their families by investing $800,000 to $1.05 million in a U.S. commercial enterprise that creates at least 10 full-time jobs for American workers. In 2023, roughly 10,000 EB-5 visas were issued.
EB-5 became notorious for delays, fraud, and opaque regional center schemes. The newly announced “Golden Card” aims to cut through that mess: a premium tier of long-term U.S. residency with a more straightforward path to citizenship. Early reports suggest an upfront commitment similar to EB-5 thresholds, but without some of the bottlenecks around job creation and real estate. Think of it as America’s belated attempt to systematize what every other country has already monetized.
Comparing the Two Programs (EB-5 vs. Golden Visa)
| Feature | EB-5 (Current) | Gold Card (Proposed) | Key Differences / Unknowns |
| Statutory authority & duration | Authorized under U.S. immigration law, with recent reauthorization via the EB-5 Reform & Integrity Act (2022) through September 30, 2027. (USCIS) | Launched by Executive Order (Sept 2025) directing the Secretaries of Commerce, State, Homeland Security to establish the program. (The White House) | Using an executive order rather than new congressional legislation raises questions about legal validity, given how U.S. immigration law is structured. (AILA) |
| Minimum investment amount | $1,050,000 in a general area; $800,000 in a Targeted Employment Area (TEA) (rural or high-unemployment) (USCIS) | The fact sheet sets the donation threshold at $1 million individually or $2 million if paid by a corporation or similar entity. (The White House) | Earlier media reports suggested as high as $5 million; the administration’s shift to $1M is a significant change. (CBS News) |
| Requirement of job creation | Must create or preserve at least 10 full-time U.S. jobs for qualifying workers (not counting the investor or immediate family). (Invest In the USA) | No requirement for job creation has been publicly stated. (KPMG) | Dropping the job creation clause would be a fundamental departure from EB-5’s core model. |
| Path to U.S. citizenship | After obtaining a (non-conditional) green card, the usual naturalization rules apply: 5 years of continuous residence (with physical presence requirements, good moral character, etc.). (Henley & Partners) | The Gold Card is intended to “facilitate expedited immigrant visas” (i.e. something akin to permanent residency) and include a path to U.S. citizenship. (The White House) | The specific timeline, conditional period, residency requirements, and naturalization rules remain unspecified. |
| Visa caps / quotas | Subject to annual numerical limits under U.S. immigration law. In 2025, the unreserved EB-5 cap has already been reached for the year. (Newsweek) | The executive order language specifies that implementation must be “consistent with limits on the number of visas” under U.S. law (i.e. the existing caps). (The White House) | This suggests Gold Cards would still need to operate within the same congressional visa ceilings unless laws are changed. |
| Fraud, delays, complexity | The EB-5 program has seen issues with fraud, mismanagement, and backlogs. Many investors have complained that Regional Center projects lack transparency. (KPMG) | A key justification for the Gold Card is to "eradicate issues of fraud" associated with EB-5. (KPMG) | Whether the new program can credibly avoid the same pitfalls is untested. |
The Price of a Ticket
| Country/Region | Minimum Investment | Processing Time | Perks |
| St. Kitts & Nevis | $250k donation | 4–6 months | Citizenship, visa-free 150+ countries |
| Dominica | $100k donation | 3–4 months | Citizenship, visa-free 140+ countries |
| Greece | €250k property | 6–12 months | EU residency, citizenship in 7 years |
| Portugal | €500k funds/investments | 6–12 months | Residency, EU citizenship in 5–7 years |
| Malta | €750k contribution + property | 12–18 months | Full EU citizenship |
| UAE | ~$545k property | 3–6 months | 10-year visa, no income tax |
| USA (EB-5 / Golden Card) | $800k–$1.05m investment | 2–5 years | Green card, path to citizenship |
Because the EB-5 program is still evolving, many details still need to be worked out. Open questions include:
- Will the $1 million “gift” be refundable, recoverable, or subject to returns/coupons?
- How will vetting and due diligence be structured (financial audits, background checks, source-of-funds scrutiny)?
- Will there be “conditional status” (i.e. analogous to EB-5’s two-year condition)?
- How many Gold Cards will be issued annually (or will issuance be uncapped)?
- How will this interact with existing visas (H-1B, EB categories) and immigration priorities?
- Will Congress push back, legislate changes, or litigate the legality of this model?
Citizenship for Sale: Smart Policy or Gimmick?
Critics argue that selling citizenship cheapens the meaning of belonging to a nation, creating “passport arbitrage.” The European Commission has repeatedly cracked down on Malta and Cyprus for turning EU passports into commodities. But the numbers speak for themselves:
- In Portugal, golden visa investments have brought in €7 billion+ since inception.
- St. Kitts funds nearly 40–50% of its budget from its CBI program.
- Malta reportedly raised €1.5 billion in just five years.
For smaller economies, it’s lifeblood. For applicants, it’s insurance: political stability, mobility, and access to healthcare and education.
The Bottom Line
Immigration has always been about opportunity, whether chasing gold in the 19th century or golden visas in the 21st. For those with deep enough pockets, borders have never been fixed lines on a map; they’ve been negotiable.
The U.S. may be late to the game, but its ticket is still the most coveted. With global demand for U.S. residency already dwarfing supply (the State Department reports nearly 4 million people on the family-sponsored green card waitlist alone), we anticipate the Golden Card will be oversubscribed.
And like in Willy Wonka’s world, demand for that golden wrapper will far exceed supply. The only question is: how many tickets is Uncle Sam really willing to sell?
Principle Wealth
